Ramblings, a salve for any hurts

Tag

mooting

The mooting society of my college is a bunch of inefficient fools. Before we signed up for the mooting competition, we were told that it will definitely be over by the end of January as they don’t want to cut into our revision time since we are sitting for exams in May. Turns out it is still ongoing until now, 7th of February. And it is only on the 10th of February will the semi-finals be held.

Don’t get me wrong. Mooting is, or rather was, fun. As long as it isn’t being dragged out. Right now, mooting is seriously cutting into my study time, and I am getting rather tired of it. I don’t really mind researching or even drafting the arguments. But for goodness sake, if you need me to send the skeleton arguments to the judges by Saturday, please give me the names of the judges by, the latest, Wednesday since you are not going to give us their email addresses! Unfortunately for us participants, until now, the names of the judges had not yet been posted.

If that isn’t inefficiency, I don’t know what is. How hard is it to post the names of the judges on Facebook? It isn’t even asking the society to notify each and every one of the participants personally. By now, the names of the judges should already have been known to the society. Posting something on Facebook will take a maximum of 5 minutes. Don’t tell me you haven’t five minutes to share, especially since smartphone is all the rage now, you can even update your Facebook in the toilet.

That is one of the most inefficient things the society did. Another point of inefficiency lies in posting the questions. Since there is a Book of Moots with the society, it shouldn’t be a problem. Yet it takes them 2 weeks to post a new question after a round of match ends.

The slow acting speed of the mooting society is really getting to me. I wish them luck in getting participants next year because I am going to warn people that they hadn’t kept their promise of the length of the time they will take to finish the whole competition. Since we all have finals in the early May, I doubt many will enter.

My opponents in the upcoming quarterfinals of the school moot competition pulled out suddenly today just one day before we are supposed to submit our skeleton arguments to each other and the judge. Some said it is a good thing and I shouldn’t grumble about it. Of course it is a good thing, especially since the question for the moot (judicial review) is extremely skewed to the opponents and it is difficult to find any statutes or case law to support our points.

BUT. But the thing is, I have already done my research amid grumbles and whines and grouses and is about to wrap it up today before submitting it tomorrow! Being inconsiderate jerks, they didn’t inform us of their decision to pull out until almost the last minute, making me waste my time doing research which could be better used to study. It makes me irritated and unhappy.

We got the question on Tuesday. Let’s say you need two days to think it over. That makes it Thursday. Do you really have to do that on Friday? When mooters are already getting ready to submit, wrapping the research up and writing up the skeleton argument? I would say it is cruel and vindictive. Even then, I would still want to ask the question. Why pull out? The case is practically yours. You only need to find the cases to support the theory which everybody, including our lecturers agreed upon.

Anyway, I heard that pull out because of the stress of coping with studies while researching for the moot at the same time. I agree that it is difficult, but you learn so much more. For example, I found a case saying that the time for application can be extended if there is a good reason even though our lecturers say to the contrary. So, I feel that doing mooting is actually quite beneficial to our studies as well.

To conclude, I will have to say I have mixed feeling about this walkover. I am of course relieved that I no longer need to do research and prepare for the match, yet at the same time I am slightly pissed at them at robbing of the sweetness of victory. Contradictory right? No matter. On to the next round, the semi-finals.